SHARDOR Adjustable Coffee Grinder-CG638B

Some notes about my specific needs:- I have MCAS/food allergies which means my allergy-safe foods are expensive and can sometimes go out of availability so I don't share them, and I need dedicated equipment for many things to avoid cross-contamination with anything other people in my house can eat that I can't.- I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) which causes fragile skin, hypermobile and easily damaged joints, and puts me at high risk of repetitive stress injury, so ergonomics are very, very important.- I am neurodivergent and can have difficulty with loud noises at the wrong time.- I make coffee every. single. day.Coffee is one of the many foods I have to buy a very expensive version of to avoid allergen-cross contamination, and because of the cost I don't share it with my spouse, so we have our own coffee grinders and coffee makers (well, a french press for me).I initially got this grinder for my spouse to replace the huge burr grinder that took up way too much counterspace and had a weird design that made emptying the grounds into the coffee maker also throw grounds all over the counter. Once I used it a few times to make "his" coffee, I realized that the grinder I used for myself was making every morning just a little worse than it has to be, so now I'm buying a second of this model for myself to replace my current grinder.Pros:- Removable cup is easy to clean and is much easier on bad shoulders to empty into the french press than lifting the whole entire grinder.- Removable cup has rounded edges so it is physically more comfortable than some other grinders to get in and out of the base. (see below for caveats)- Removable cup seals to the plastic lid so grounds don't fly around and fall into the base while grinding (this happens with the other grinder)- grind button is easy to press, even with floppy, easily-dislocated EDS thumbs and doesn't need to be held down for the grind cycle to complete. (I have splints but the odds of finding them before coffee is low.)- The grind coarseness setting is more useful than you'd think on a blade grinder *if* you are always grinding the same amount of coffee. The button seems to basically set a timer for how long the motor goes, so you don't have to sit there and hold it and try to track how long you've been grinding. (See below for caveats)- QUIET. I thought that all coffee grinders had to be loud. I didn't even realize that the noise bothered me until I was used something quieter and didn't have my teeth set on edge for the entire grind time. I don't know that this is so quiet I'd be able to have a comfortable conversation standing right in front of it, but at least I don't have to also tell people in the next room that they won't be able to hear each other for the next 30-40 seconds because I'm grinding coffee.- Does the intended job- grinds your coffee about as well and evenly as any blade-grinder can.Cons/Caveats:- Consistency issues with the quality/ease of seating the bowl: The first grinder I got was very easy to get the bowl and lid properly seated. The second one I bought for dedicated use with my allergy-safe coffee beans was much harder to get seated and physically hurt my hands. I had to exchange 3 times and swap bowls and lids between units to get the same smooth mechanism as the first one I ordered.- Even with the ideal fit of bowl and lid parts, there are still some fiddly bits that may be difficult if you have coordination issues. I think these fiddly bits are very necessary to make sure the cup is properly seated into the base to avoid undue wear on the motor or gears, but it may still be a barrier for some. It's currently okay for me but I am not sure for how long.- The grind coarseness setting is not really a coarseness setting. As noted above, it's useful, but with any and all blade grinders, the actual coarseness is in part determined by how many beans are in the cup. So this is only helpful if you grind the same amount of beans every single time. Fortunately we mostly do.- (UPDATED) Long-term reliability: When I initially purchased, I was worried about both the long-term reliability of the product, and the possibility of the maker going out of business. 7 months later, the manufacturer still exists, but the first grinder I purchased has started to have an issue with with the mechanism that detects the bowl is locked about 7 months later. About half the time the machine will not run without re-seating the bowl and lid a few times. I emailed the seller and they are sending a replacement, but that also means I'm throwing away a bunch of hardware which I don't really prefer to treat a small appliance as disposable.I don't feel the reliability issue is worth a full star downgrade since the seller stood by it, but if I could downgrade it like, 1/2 a star, I think I would. Maybe 1/4. If my second unit also craps out in under 2 years I may go ahead and downgrade- the waste really bums me out.

A big, maybe the biggest, part of customer service is followup by the seller. I reviewed this grinder a little over a month ago because it failed about a year ago and I saw it in my past orders. A week ago I received an email from the seller offering to refund or replace. Mine lasted me over two years, but for the price I didn't think two years was an appropriate lifespan, and it saddened me because it's really a great grinder when it's working like new! Today I received a brand new one from the seller. Now, perhaps it will have the same lifespan as the original and I'll have to update this review again, but as far as customer service goes, this company has proven to be among the very best out there, and maybe the new unit will have solved the issues I dealt with. Whatever the case, I feel compelled to mention that THEY contacted ME on their own and offered me a replacement for free, and I got it in less than a week. That's great customer service! I have been using my old (20 years +!) Krupp grinder in the interim and though it still works perfectly, it's obnoxiously loud! I grind my coffee at 2 a.m. and need to wrap the Krupp in a towel so I don't wake up the house. This Shardor grinder is so quiet! It grinds well, with adjustable grind, and the bowl comes out so I don't have to turn the whole thing over, tap the grounds loose from the grinder into the top and hope I don't spill grounds all over my counter like I do with the Krupp... I just remove the lid, twist out the bowl and dump it into my pour-over filter holder. No mess.I'm hoping this one will last longer than the first one. I'll update again as appropriate. Kudos to Martine at Shardor for going the extra mile to make a customer satisfied no matter what. BIG thumbs-up!***Original review below***This worked well for months, but then the adjustable grind time feature started running too long. Adjusting down worked marginally but eventually it just kept going until the coffee was dust unless it was turned off.Then it started making a weird noise, as though the blades weren’t engaging at first when turned on. Next thing I knew the blades became separated from the stainless steel bowl inside, rendering it useless. No way to put the assembly back onto the bowl.It was quiet, effective and great for grinding coffee and especially spices, where different grinds are necessary for specific rubs and seasonings, but if it doesn’t last, what’s the point?I wouldn’t buy another!

Lo tengo varios años ya y funciona de maravilla, no hace mucho escándalo y muele bien el café, estoy muy conforme con el producto.

Was waiting to see how long this one lasted. its been a little over 3 years, but it is finally giving out. started to smell electrical heat yesterday from it, and again today. Time to find a new one, might just order another one of these, they are great for the fine setting for my moka pot espresso. The timer function is a big plus on the design to be able to run it while i fill up the moka pot with water. I do not like having to hold down lids for the grinder to activate and just sit there and hold it. It does grind the coffee to a really nice powder for the espresso.

Love the design! The only thing I'd change is instead of a timer, I'd put a speed adjustment knob. But overall it's not that necessary because it grinds things so well, so even less hassle. Put the stuff in, press and let it do its thing.Great price, great quality. Gets the job done really well.

Good quality

This coffee grinder is fantastic! It grinds beans so well that I am able to make a much better cup of coffee with an aeropress at home than anything I can order from a good coffee shop.That said, it stopped working after about a year of daily use. The button you press to start grinding stopped working. But I reached out to Shardor’s customer service, described what happened, and they immediately shipped me a new one. So even though my grinder had an electrical failure, Shardor’s customer service has certainly made up for it.While I wait for the new machine to arrive, I’m just using my hand-crank burr grinder, so not to worry, the coffee is still flowing!